Early evalution of pilot initiatives shows strong promise for General Practice support for people to quit smoking

Lakes DHB has three pilots in primary care under way that provide smoking cessation services to high-needs populations.

One of the pilots is based in a Rotorua general practice, Western Heights Health Centre, which has a high-deprivation and high Maori population. The pilot includes proactively contacting all identified smokers and offering quit support. A Practice Nurse runs a smoking cessation clinic, and there has been overwhelming interest and uptake for the service.

Another pilot at the Ngongataha Medical Centre includes having a weekly smoking cessation clinic with practice nurses making regular contact with patients to help them become smokefree.

A Clinical Midwife Smoking Cessation Specialist is providing antenatal support to independent midwives and in the maternity ward at the hospital.

Early evaluation of all three pilots indicates significant increases in caseloads and quit rates greater than expected or seen in the traditional specialist smoking cessation services.

Final results will be available in October 2011. We'll make the outcomes of the final evaluation available then.